Moody’s

Almost one year ago to this day, I blogged about bond credit rating giant Moody’s Investor Service downgrading the City of Chicago’s general obligation (GO) and sales tax ratings to Baa1 from A3, affecting $8.3 billion of GO and sales tax debt. I added last March:

According to Moody’s, “Obligations rated Baa are judged to be medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk and as such may possess certain speculative characteristics.”

Just before the weekend, Moody’s downgraded Chicago’s credit rating yet again. The Global Credit Research division announced on the Moody’s website under “Ratings News” Friday:

New York, February 27, 2015 — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded to Baa2 from Baa1 the rating on the City of Chicago, IL’s $8.3 billion of outstanding general obligation (GO) debt, $542 million of outstanding sales tax revenue debt, and $268 million of outstanding or authorized motor fuel tax revenue debt. We have also downgraded to Speculative Grade (SG) from VMIG 3 the short-term rating on the city’s outstanding Sales Tax Revenue Refunding Bonds, Variable Rate Series 2002. The outlook on the long-term ratings remains negative…

“The outlook on the long-term ratings remains negative”

Kind of hard to get excited about the “Windy City’s” prospects after reading that.

To be fair, some are suggesting the credit rating downgrades are being influenced by City Hall in order to avoid meeting certain financial obligations (i.e., Chicago’s well-publicized public pension crisis).

“‘We don’t have the time to mess around. We are in deep, deep trouble financially,’ [Illinois Governor-elect Bruce] Rauner told a meeting of the Illinois Farm Bureau at a downtown Chicago hotel. ‘The next 24 months are going to be rough. And I apologize. I ain’t going to be Mr. Popularity for a little while. That’s OK. Four years from now I think, though, everybody will appreciate what we did.’”

-Chicago Tribune website, December 8, 2014

Talk about lists you don’t want to be on. In 2012 and 2013, Illinois was the 3rd worst-run state in the annual best- and worst-run states in America survey conducted by New York City-based financial news and opinion organization 24/7 Wall St.

So how did the “Land of Lincoln” fare in 2014? From the 24/7 Wall St. website on December 3:

How well run is your state? Assessing a state’s management quality is hardly easy. The current economic climate and standard of living in any given state are not only the results of policy choices and developments that occurred in the last few years, but can also be affected by decisions made decades ago, and by forces outside a state’s control.

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. attempts to answer this question by surveying various aspects of each state. To determine how well states are managed, we examine key financial ratios, as well as social and economic outcomes. This year, North Dakota is the best-run state in the country for the third consecutive year, while Illinois replaced California as the worst-run state…

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

Ouch. Worst part is, the people who brought us this mess are the same ones still in charge, more or less. It will be interesting to see how much of a difference Governor-elect Rauner- who ran on the Republican ticket- can make in the Democrat-controlled state.

24/7 Wall St. went into more detail about my home state’s latest “honor.” From the piece:

Illinois is the worst-run state in the nation. Like many other low-ranked states, more people left Illinois than moved there. Illinois lost more than 137,000 residents due to migration between the middle of 2010 and July 2013. A poor housing market may partly explain the exodus. Median home values fell 16.2% between 2009 and 2013, the second largest drop nationwide. Illinois has extremely poor finances by many measures. Just 39.3% of Illinois’ pension liabilities were funded as of 2013, worse than any other state. Further, the state’s reserves are estimated at just 0.5% of its general fund expenditure, the second lowest reserves rate nationwide. Both Moody’s and S&P gave Illinois the worst credit ratings of any state, at A3 and A- respectively. According to Moody’s, the state’s rating reflects its low fund balances and high pension obligations, as well as its “chronic use of payment deferrals to manage operating fund cash.”

As for our neighbors, Indiana is ranked 28th and Wisconsin comes in at 26th in 2014- down from 19th and 21st- respectively.

That’s quite a hit (9 places) the Hoosiers took from last year. Wonder what’s behind the drop?

Curious as to where 24/7 Wall St. ranked your state in 2014? Head on over to their website here.

Hoping to ward off another credit rating downgrade, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Wednesday that she will soon present a plan to reform the county’s underfunded pension system.

And she’s leaving the door open to hiking property, sales and other taxes.

When asked repeatedly about the possibility of tax increases, Preckwinkle responded: “We’re looking at all the options. Everything is on the table.”

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

Slodysko added later in the piece:

Preckwinkle declined to discuss specifics, but she did say that any plan that goes before the Legislature will not have property tax increase language written into the bill…

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

Okaaay… so that means Preckwinkle’s not “leaving the door open” to hiking property taxes?

Regardless, based on what I see coming down the line for us, it’s only a matter of time.

Last summer, Cook County saw its bond rating lowered by one of the major credit rating agencies supposedly due to its public pension liabilities. I blogged on August 20, 2013:

In the wake of significantly downgrading the City of Chicago’s credit rating, bond credit rating giant Moody’s Investor Service lowered Cook County’s bond rating a notch last Friday. In a news release from the Moody’s website right before the weekend:

New York, August 16, 2013 — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the rating on Cook County’s (IL) general obligation (GO) debt to A1 from Aa3, affecting $3.7 billion of general obligation debt. The outlook remains negative.

Last Tuesday, I blogged about Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempt to address some of the City’s public pension woes via larger contributions by City employees and $50 million tax increases for five straight years- beginning next year and continuing through 2019- for Chicago property owners.

There’s been a lot of chatter regarding this proposal and other pension “reform” activity today. Karen Pierog reported on the Reuters website:

Legislation to ease funding shortfalls in two of Chicago’s four retirement systems is a modestly positive credit step but not a permanent fix, Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday…

Moody’s said that if enacted into law, the measure would immediately reduce the unfunded liabilities in the two funds.

“However, we expect that the (liability) would then escalate for a number of years before declining. Accrued liabilities would exceed plan assets for years to come, and if annual investment returns fall short of the assumed 7.5 percent, the risk of plan insolvency may well reappear,” the credit rating agency said in a report…

After breezing through an Illinois House committee on April 2, the bill has stalled. Moody’s said that even if the bill makes it out of the legislature, Governor Pat Quinn must sign it. The law would then face potential challenges to its legality under the Illinois constitution, which prohibits the impairment of retirement benefits for public sector workers…

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

So will the Illinois Governor and fellow Chicago Democrat sign off on Mayor Emanuel’s proposed legislation?

John Byrne and Monique Garcia reported on the Chicago Tribune website this afternoon:

Gov. Pat Quinn today came out against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to raise Chicago property taxes and cut retirement benefits as a way to shore up some of Chicago’s government worker pension systems.

The re-election seeking Democratic governor called the bill floating around Springfield “a sketch” that “kept changing by the hour” and blasted the property tax as a “lousy tax” because it is not based on the ability to pay…

“I don’t think that’s a good way to go,” Quinn said of hiking property taxes. “And I say it today and I’ll say it tomorrow, they’ve got to come up with a much better comprehensive approach to deal with this issue. But if they just think they are going to gouge property tax owners, no can do. We’re not going to go that way.”

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

Now, as I pointed out in last week’s post about Chicago’s public pension crisis:

There’s still a state-required $600 million contribution due next year from the City to stabilize police and fire pension funds that this proposed property tax hike doesn’t address and has to be dealt with…

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

Plus, I read the following this morning by Chacour Koop on the website of The State Journal-Register (Springfield):

After addressing Illinois’ own employee pension crisis, lawmakers now face an equally challenging task with the state’s cities, as mayors demand help with underfunded police and firefighter pensions before the growing cost “chokes” budgets and forces local tax increases.

The nine largest cities in Illinois after Chicago have a combined $1.5 billion in unfunded debt to public safety workers’ pension systems. Police and fire retirement funds for cities statewide have an average of just 55 percent of the money needed to meet current obligations to workers and retirees…

The problems — a history of underfunding, the expansion of job benefits and the prospect of crushing future payments — mirror those that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned about when he asked the legislature for relief last week.

In 2016, state law requires cities to make required contribution increases — in some cases, more than an additional $1 million annually — so they’ll reach 90 percent funding by 2040. If they don’t, the state will begin doing it for them, diverting grant money now used by cities elsewhere directly into the pension funds…

(Editor’s note: Bold added for emphasis)

Just like the Illinois General Assembly- dominated by Democrats- barely passed legislation on December 3, 2013, that was touted as a “fix” for the state’s $100 billion public pension crisis (it isn’t), something tells me an accommodation may be reached with fellow Democrats running the City of Chicago so they don’t have to pay the full amount of the state-required $600 million contribution due next year to stabilize police and fire pension funds.

That goes for those large Illinois communities as well.

Watch all the back-patting go on should that “fix” materialize as well.

UPDATE: From Fran Spielman over on the Chicago Sun-Times website early Tuesday morning:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and House Speaker Michael Madigan Monday stripped out controversial language from city pension legislation that had authorized the City Council to impose a property-tax hike, putting the stalled measure back on the fast-track at the state Capitol.

Madigan, D-Chicago, filed an amendment to Senate Bill 1922 after the House adjourned Monday without taking any action on the stalled legislation. Sources now expect the legislation to be voted upon as early as Tuesday.

Just as I was about to blog about prepping tonight I observed the following splashed on the homepage of the Chicago Tribune website:

Chicago credit rating takes major hit

Chicago’s financial standing took a hit Tuesday when a major bond rating agency once again downgraded the city’s credit worthiness…

No surprise there, all things considered. No real effort has been made to tackle Chicago’s financial woes, which led to bond credit rating giant Moody’s Investor Service downgrading the City of Chicago’s general obligation (GO) and sales tax ratings to A3 from Aa3, water and sewer senior lien revenue ratings to A1 from Aa2, and water and sewer second lien revenue ratings to A2 from Aa3 back on July 17, 2013.

After seeing that headline, I decided to head over to Moody’s Investors Service website to check out the latest “Ratings News,” where the following was posted:

Also downgrades water and sewer senior lien revenue bonds to A2 from A1 and second lien revenue bonds to A3 from A2, affecting $3.3 billion of debt; outlook negative for all ratings…

According to Moody’s, “Obligations rated Baa are judged to be medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk and as such may possess certain speculative characteristics.”

Their Global Credit Research unit added:

The Baa1 rating on Chicago’s GO debt reflects the city’s massive and growing unfunded pension liabilities, which threaten the city’s fiscal solvency absent major revenue and other budgetary adjustments adopted in the near term and sustained for years to come. The size of Chicago’s unfunded pension liabilities makes it an extreme outlier, as indicated by the city’s fiscal 2012 adjusted net pension liability (ANPL) of 8.0 times operating revenue, which is the highest of any rated US local government. While the Illinois General Assembly’s recent passage of pension reforms for the State of Illinois (A3 negative) and the Chicago Park District (CPD) (A1 negative) suggests that reforms may soon be forthcoming for Chicago, we expect that any cost savings of such reforms will not alleviate the need for substantial new revenue and fiscal adjustments in order to meet the city’s long-deferred pension funding needs. We expect that the city’s pension contributions will continue to fall below those based on actuarial standards. The city’s slowly-amortizing debt levels are also large and growing. The Baa1 rating also incorporates credit strengths including Chicago’s large tax base that sits at the center of one of the nation’s most diverse regional economies and the city’s broad legal authority to raise revenue…

You can read the entire Moody’s piece about the downgrade on their website here.

Moody’s Investors Service has dealt Chicago another ratings blow. In this case, it’s the Chicago Transit Authority. From a Global Credit Research news release last Friday:

New York, October 25, 2013 — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the Chicago Transit Authority’s $2.9 billion outstanding sales tax revenue bonds to A1 from Aa3 and revised the outlook to negative from stable. Also affected are approximately $77 million of authority lease bonds issued by the Chicago Public Building Commission, which have been downgraded to A2.

According to Moody’s rating scale, this CTA debt has gone from being “high quality” and “subject to very low credit risk” to “upper-medium grade” and “subject to low credit risk.”

The well-known credit rating agency added:

The rating assigned to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) sales-tax backed debt has relied partly on active management — the ability to increase pledged revenue to allow for new debt and to maintain debt-service coverage. Two main factors now indicate weaker CTA credit quality. First, in view of growing credit pressures on Chicago (A3/negative), Cook County (A1/negative), and the State of Illinois (A3/negative), we believe the political will to impose further revenue increases has diminished. Second, the CTA system faces growing deferred maintenance and capital needs that will require funding from new debt issuance and other sources, at a time when state and federal support is likely to dwindle. Despite the recent improvement in pledged revenues driven by the national economic recovery, debt service coverage levels are likely to decrease in coming years. A backlog of pledged state matching payments, though recently reduced, will remain a long-term challenge and may be exacerbated by impending state income tax cuts and the state’s massive pension deficits. CTA’s own increasing pension challenges may strain its operating budget. Together, these factors have added to the importance of distinctions between CTA’s sales-tax bonds and those issued by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA, Aa3/stable), a transit oversight body with a prior claim on the same regional sales taxes and a more conservative additional debt limit.

Just when I thought I had read/seen it all today comes this from Lisa Lambert on the Reuters website late this afternoon:

All U.S. states except for Delaware have escaped the possibility of falling back into recession, as they reap the rewards of strong private-sector employment and a burgeoning energy sector, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.

Moody’s Analytics, which tracks state and metropolitan economies, added Illinois, Wisconsin and Alabama to its list of states in recovery. That left Delaware alone in its “at risk of recession” category.

Moody’s Analytics, a unit of Moody’s evaluates economics and financial risk around the world. A separate unit, the credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service, recently said the outlook for states is now stable, after five years of being negative.

With the U.S. economy being kept afloat by massive federal government intervention, trillion dollar budget deficits, an almost zero percent federal funds rate, attempted reinflating of the housing and financial markets, $85 billion worth of long-term bonds being purchased by the Fed each and every month, job creation dominated by part-time positions, and highly-questionable government reporting of economic data to boot, one could easily argue another recession- measured using “official” figures- is a real and constant threat to the United States.

After I read that recession assessment by Moody’s Analytics, the following sarcastic line from “Gunny” Highway (actor Clint Eastwood) in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge came to mind:

The past week has been quite a crappy one for Chicago, Illinois, as it concerns their finances and schools. But none of the bad news should surprise regular readers of this blog. From the website of bond credit rating giant Moody’s Investor Service late Wednesday night:

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the City of Chicago’s (IL) general obligation (GO) and sales tax ratings to A3 from Aa3; water and sewer senior lien revenue ratings to A1 from Aa2; and water and sewer second lien revenue ratings to A2 from Aa3. Chicago has $7.7 billion of GO debt, $566 million of sales tax debt, $2.0 billion of water revenue debt, and $1.3 billion of sewer revenue debt outstanding. The outlook on all ratings is negative.

It wasn’t long ago that I blogged about Moody’s warning the “Windy City” of a possible credit rating downgrade. From their website on April 17, 2013:

Moody’s has announced its final approach to the way it will analyze and adjust pension liabilities as part of its credit analysis of state and local governments. These changes reflect the rating agency’s view that pension obligations are a significant source of credit pressure for governments and warrant a more conservative view of the potential size of the obligations. As a result of this new approach, Moody’s has also placed the general obligation ratings of the cities of Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Portland, OR, and of 25 other US local governments and school districts on review for possible downgrade. The entities whose ratings have been placed on review have large adjusted net pension liabilities relative to their rating category…

Moody’s rates over 8,000 local governments in the United States. Less than 1% of those with general obligation or equivalent ratings have been placed under review because of the new pension adjustments.

I’ve been pointing out Chicago’s financial woes for some time now- despite City Hall’s claim that “all’s well.” I wrote on July 25, 2012:

There’s good news and bad news out concerning Chicago’s finances.

The good news is that the city has more cash on hand these days due to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s cost-cutting.

The bad news is that the Windy City is falling deeper into debt.

Fran Spielman wrote on the Chicago Sun-Times website Sunday:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed the books on 2011 with $310 million in cash on hand, $167 million more than the year before, but added $465 million to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers, year-end audits show…

The new round of borrowing brings Chicago’s total long-term debt to just over $27 billion. That’s $10,000 for every one of the city’s nearly 2.7 million residents. More than a decade ago, the debt load was $9.6 billion or $3,338-per-resident.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

The City of Chicago’s response? From the piece:

“Is it troubling? The answer is, ‘no.’ We still have a very strong bond rating. Our fiscal position is getting better every year and we are aggressively managing our liabilities and obligations,” City Comptroller Amer Ahmad said Friday, the same day that Moody’s Investor’s Service downgraded $6.8 billion in O’Hare Airport bonds.

So much for that “very strong bond rating.”

As for the Chicago public schools? Remember this post from September 13, 2012?:

By now, many of you have probably heard about the teachers strike going on in Chicago. Day 4 and counting. While many Chicago public school teachers are probably worth every red cent of the $71,017 median salary they command- and more- when all things are considered, considering the precarious financial situation of the Chicago Public Schools, a larger crisis looks to be right around the corner. Rosalind Rossi wrote on the Chicago Sun-Times website yesterday:

As school and union leaders wrestled over a new teachers contract Tuesday, a huge, nagging question loomed in the background:

Once they finish, how will Chicago Public Schools pay for any new contract they forge?

There’s no easy give in the budget, because CPS already depleted its rainy day “reserve” fund to help plug a $665 million deficit this school year.

And if officials eke out enough cuts to pay for the cost of teacher raises this school year, a $1 billion deficit — and no “reserve” cushion — awaits them next school year, when a pension relief package expires.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

$1 billion deficit next year and no reserve funds left?

Besides significant cuts, there’s already been talk of massive teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, and higher taxes being required in the near future.

Time will tell how this all plays out.

Time looks to be up. From Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Kim Geiger on the Chicago Tribune website this morning:

Citing a $1 billion budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees, more than 1,000 of them teachers, the district said Thursday night.

About half of the 1,036 teachers being let go are tenured. The latest layoffs, which also include 1,077 school staff members, are in addition to 855 employees — including 420 teachers — who were laid off last month as a result of the district’s decision to close 49 elementary schools and a high school program.

I love Chicago, and I wish only the best for the neighbors I just recently left behind. But one word comes to mind right now as I look back at everything I’ve just typed:

“We still have a very strong bond rating. Our fiscal position is getting better every year and we are aggressively managing our liabilities and obligations.”

-City of Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad, July 20, 2012, as noted in a July 22, 2012, Chicago Sun-Times article

I’ve been warningSurvival And Prosperity readers for some time that the City of Chicago’s finances are not as peachy keen as City Hall would like outsiders to believe.

So much so, the City’s credit rating is on review for a possible downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service. From the Moody’s website earlier today:

Moody’s has announced its final approach to the way it will analyze and adjust pension liabilities as part of its credit analysis of state and local governments. These changes reflect the rating agency’s view that pension obligations are a significant source of credit pressure for governments and warrant a more conservative view of the potential size of the obligations. As a result of this new approach, Moody’s has also placed the general obligation ratings of the cities of Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Portland, OR, and of 25 other US local governments and school districts on review for possible downgrade. The entities whose ratings have been placed on review have large adjusted net pension liabilities relative to their rating category…

Moody’s rates over 8,000 local governments in the United States. Less than 1% of those with general obligation or equivalent ratings have been placed under review because of the new pension adjustments.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

Great. Chicago is in another “select group” it really doesn’t want to belong to these days.

Today, residents of the state of Illinois saw the repercussions of having $8 billion of unpaid bills, a $96.8 billion pension funding gap, and falling credit ratings. Karen Pierog reported on the Reuters website:

Illinois yanked a $500 million general obligation bond issue slated for Wednesday because of credit concerns that could boost its borrowing costs, in the latest financial blow to the state, which has failed to fix its bloated public pensions.

Investment banks that planned to bid on the debt indicated investors would demand higher yields on the 25-year bonds, said John Sinsheimer, Illinois’ capital markets director.

“We were getting indications of higher spreads than we were anticipating,” said Sinsheimer, who declined to discuss specific spread levels. “We felt it was prudent to pull the deal for the time being.”

(Editor’s notes: Italics added for emphasis)

Pierog pointed out:

Illinois is already faced with the highest spreads – 137 basis points in the latest week – over Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A scale among states and cities tracked by MMD, a unit of Thomson Reuters.

Over the weekend, I noted Standard & Poor’s downgraded the State of Illinois on Friday to an “A-” rating with a negative outlook- last among all 50 states. I added that among other major credit rating agencies, Moody’s also ranks Illinois last of all the U.S. states and Fitch ranks it 49th but on watch for a possible downgrade.

As for Illinois taxpayers? They may have to pay tens of millions of dollars more in interest when the state looks to borrow more money- like what almost happened today.

When I heard a major credit rating agency had downgraded Illinois Friday, the term “death spiral state” quickly came to mind.

And then my thoughts turned to the tens of millions of dollars Illinois taxpayers might be on the hook for down the road.

Ray Long and Monique Garcia reported on the Chicago Tribune website Friday:

Illinois fell to the bottom of all 50 states in the rankings of a major credit ratings agency Friday following the failure of Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to fix the state’s hemorrhaging pension system during this month’s lame-duck session.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded Illinois in what is the latest fallout over the $96.8 billion debt to five state pension systems. The New York rating firm’s ranking signaled taxpayers may pay tens of millions of dollars more in interest when the state borrows money for roads and other projects.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

Illinois now has an “A-” rating with a negative outlook from S&P. Among other major credit rating agencies, Moody’s ranks Illinois last among the 50 states and Fitch ranks it 49th but on watch for a possible downgrade.

S&P estimates the pension system in the coming year will see assets fall to 39% of future obligations.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

Hardly any talk about the crisis in the local mainstream media outlets this weekend. Amazing. I can’t understand why more Illinois residents aren’t up in arms over this humongous financial mess the state is in.

Moody’s Investors Service, a major Wall Street credit rating agency, announced yesterday that it has revised its rating outlook for the State of Illinois from stable to negative. Illinois is already Moody’s lowest-rated state. From the agency’s website Thursday:

Rating Action: Moody’s revises State of Illinois’ rating outlook to negative from stable; general obligation rating affirmed at A2

Global Credit Research – 13 Dec 2012

Action applies to approximately $33 billion of outstanding general obligation and related debt

New York, December 13, 2012 — Moody’s Investors Service has revised the State of Illinois’ credit outlook to negative from stable, while affirming the state’s general obligation debt rating at A2. The state has about $28 billion of G.O. bonds outstanding. We have also affirmed related ratings assigned to state borrowings, including about $2.6 billion of debt issued by the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, rated A3, and the state’s Build Illinois sales tax revenue bonds, rated A2, of which $2.7 billion are currently outstanding. The negative outlook is linked to ratings on the G.O. as well as the related credits.

SUMMARY RATING RATIONALE

The negative outlook reflects our view that the state’s pension funding pressures are likely to persist and perhaps worsen in the near term. Moreover, fiscal 2014 marks the last year before Illinois’ 2011 income tax increases are partly unwound, putting the state on track to deal with simultaneous growth in pension funding needs and loss of revenue. If the legislature in coming weeks or months enacts significant pension reforms, they are almost certain to be challenged, given the state’s constitutional protection of retiree benefits. Political pressures, coupled with the threat of litigation, may mean that any reforms enacted have only a marginal effect on liabilities. Despite a diverse economy with above-average wealth, lackluster demographic and economic characteristics indicate that, even with continued US economic improvement, the state’s existing tax structure will not provide enough revenue to address the rising cost of pension benefits and other state expenses. In addition, the state’s payment backlog remains high.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

Back on January 13, 2011, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation authorizing a 67 percent increase in the personal income tax of Illinois residents and a 46 percent increase in corporate income taxes on Illinois businesses. In 2015, these taxes are scheduled to be rolled back from 5 percent to 3.75 percent and 7 percent to 5.25 percent respectively. However, as I noted that same day:

The last time income tax rates in the “Land of Lincoln” went up in 1989, politicians also claimed it was as a temporary increase to combat a financial “rough patch.” But the rates never came down and by 1993 were designated permanent. Until now, that is.

I won’t be surprised if lighting strikes Illinois residents and businesses twice.

You can read the entire rating action report on the Moody’s website here.

-Panelist at June’s “State of the Nonprofit” conference in Chicago (hat tip The Greater Good blog)

The proverbial brick wall keeps getting closer in Illinois. And even though the state’s financial woes- and what needs to be done to fix them- are painfully obvious, the politicians carry on as if it were business as usual.

The problem is, it’s not. And years of fiscal mismanagement are really starting to bite the “Land of Lincoln” in its rear-end.

Take the state’s credit ratings, for example. From Karen Pierog on the Chicago Tribune website yesterday:

Illinois lawmakers’ inability to reform a woefully underfunded public retirement system at a special session last Friday is likely to weigh on the state’s already relatively low credit ratings.

“We are in the process of reviewing the total credit picture, including the budget, pensions, etc,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services analyst Robin Prunty said on Tuesday.

“But certainly, the lack of action on pensions is not a credit positive.”

Pierog, who is affiliated with Reuters, added:

S&P, which rates Illinois A-plus with a negative outlook, put the state on notice in March that it could face a multiple-notch general obligation rating downgrade if there is no “credible progress” in taming its huge $83 billion unfunded pension liability and on tackling a structural budget imbalance.

Another credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, downgraded the State of Illinois to A2 from A1 earlier this year.

According to the California State Treasurer’s website this morning, California’s S&P and Moody’s credit ratings are A- (lower than Illinois) and A1 (higher than Illinois), respectively.

But it’s not just credit ratings where years of poor policymaking are coming back to haunt the state. Pierog noted:

Investors are demanding higher yields to invest in Illinois’ bonds as its so-called credit spread over Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A scale for 10-year debt is the widest at 157 basis points among major U.S. city and state debt issuers tracked by MMD, a unit of Thomson Reuters. California’s spread by comparison is less than half of Illinois’ at 66 basis points.

Perhaps that panelist got it wrong. California could be Spain, and Illinois, Greece.

While Jim Rogers and I don’t anticipate an authentic U.S. default in the coming days, one European nation is heading in that direction. From Moody’s Investors Service yesterday:

Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Greece’s local- and foreign-currency bond ratings to Ca from Caa1 and has assigned a developing outlook to the ratings.

The combination of the announced EU support programme and debt exchange proposals by major financial institutions implies that private creditors will incur substantial economic losses on their holdings of government debt. The rating’s developing outlook reflects the current uncertainty about the exact market value of the securities creditors will receive in the exchange. After the debt exchanges have been completed, Moody’s will re-assess the credit risk profile of any outstanding or new securities issued by the Greek government.

The announced EU programme along with the Institute of International Finance’s (IIF’s) statement (representing major financial institutions) implies that the probability of a distressed exchange, and hence a default, on Greek government bonds is virtually 100%. The magnitude of investor losses will be determined by the difference between the face value of the debt exchanged and the market value of the debt received. The IIF has indicated that investor losses are likely to be in excess of 20%.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

According to Moody’s Global Credit Research unit, all is not lost in Greece. They noted:

Looking further ahead, the EU programme and proposed debt exchanges will increase the likelihood that Greece will be able to stabilize and eventually reduce its overall debt burden. The support package for Greece also benefits all euro area sovereigns by containing the severe near-term contagion risk that would likely have followed a disorderly payment default or large haircut on existing Greek debt. However, Greece will still face medium-term solvency challenges: its stock of debt will still be well in excess of 100% of GDP for many years and it will still face very significant implementation risks to fiscal and economic reform.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

I blogged about the potential consequences for the United States should Greece default back on June 2 and July 6.

You can read Moody’s entire explanation for their downgrade of Greek debt on their website here.

New York, June 02, 2011 — Moody’s Investors Service said today that if there is no progress on increasing the statutory debt limit in coming weeks, it expects to place the US government’s rating under review for possible downgrade, due to the very small but rising risk of a short-lived default. If the debt limit is raised and default avoided, the Aaa rating will be maintained. However, the rating outlook will depend on the outcome of negotiations on deficit reduction. A credible agreement on substantial deficit reduction would support a continued stable outlook; lack of such an agreement could prompt Moody’s to change its outlook to negative on the Aaa rating…

From My Other Blog

Back on New Year’s Eve, I blogged about Swiss-born investment advisor/money manager Marc Faber appearing on Bloomberg Television’s In the Loop. The publisher of the monthly investment newsletter The Gloom Boom & Doom Report talked about precious metals (among other financial topics) and shared the following with viewers: I tell you, I prefer physical precious […] ...

Well-known investor, author, and financial commentator Jim Rogers was recently interviewed by Geoff Rutherford for Sprott Money News as part of their “Ask The Expert” series. The Singapore-based Rogers talked about a number of financial/investing topics, including what he believed are the safest countries to keep money and assets in. From their exchange recorded March […] ...

Regular readers of Offshore Safe Deposit Boxes might remember me mentioning IBV International Vaults last summer. I named the South African private vault as having the “World’s Best Offshore Private Vault Video.” (Editor’s note: I’ve encountered some really good videos lately for the second installment of this “competition,” which is scheduled to be held again […] ...

Just like St. James’ Safe Deposit in Leeds, England, there’s been another non-bank, private vault I’ve followed for some time that’s now opened its doors. Enter RockSafe, located in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah in Malaysia. From the Daily Express (Malaysia) on March 15: Another safe deposit service has debuted with Rocksafe Sdn […] ...